A roundtable discussion centered on the problems of the gas chemical industry has been held in Russia. The topics of discussion were the “shale revolution in the US”, the opportunities for developing new projects in Russia, feedstock transportation problems, project funding issues and scientific developments in the field. Rafinat Yarullin, General Director of Tatneftekhiminvest-holding, has pointed out in his speech the willingness on part of gas-producing companies to develop gas-processing projects: “We used to have a perennial shortage of gas supply. It was always a huge task to have one’s plant supplied with gas, but nowadays it’s a no-problem thing. Gazprom’s chief managers all speak in the same breath: let’s develop our industry, take our gas, use our gas. People have started to talk about natural gas as car fuel, about its pollution-free nature. Both buses and private vehicles may use it, with reduced engine emissions: the reduction is from […]

Import deliveries of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) to the Russian market shrunk by 23% y/y in the Jan-May period, writes Market Report. The country imported a total of 98.1 thousand tonnes of HDPE in the first 5 months of the year, vs. 128.2 thousand tonnes a year earlier. At the same time, the seasonal increase in demand, coupled with the idling of the Stavrolen plant, pushed the April and May imports up to the respective levels of 23.2 and 22 thousand tonnes of HDPE. Russia’s Jan-to-May imports of HDPE for extrusion coating declined by 14% from their previous-year level, with May deliveries shrinking to 3.2 thousand tonnes from 5.3 thousand tonnes in April. The customs duty on the imports of this type of polyethylene, currently set at 9.1%, has been suspended in a relatively recent decision, so we may yet see the imports rising in the months ahead. Pipe-grade HDPE imports […]

The Russian Chemists Union (RCU) has made an appeal to the country’s Minister of Industry and Trade regarding a higher environmental spending burden due to be placed on chemical companies starting from 2015. The matter concerns a bill currently being prepared for its second reading and titled “On introducing amendments to the Federal Law ‘On Environmental Protection’ and to certain other legislative acts of the Russian Federation.” The whole legislative amendment project has as its aim the transition of the environmental regulatory framework to the best available technology (BAT) principle in the years of 2019-2025. “The envisioned adoption of new standards will entail costly procedures in which the sources that emit, discharge, or stockpile pollutants will be re-registered, permit papers reissued, continuous automated environmental monitoring systems installed, and so on,” pointed out RCU’s President Viktor Ivanov, the author of the letter. The draft law also calls for the introduction of […]

The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia has prepared an analysis of the country’s sodium carbonate (soda ash) market. According to the analysis, Russia’s soda ash market is federal in its nature: no technical or economic factors are present to limit the consumer’s capability to buy soda ash within the country’s borders. Soda production business in the country, excluding the Crimean Federal District, is pursued by 5 entities, namely, OJSC Bashkir Soda Company; OSJC Berezniki Soda Plant (Perm Krai); OJSC Achinsk Alumina Refinery (Krasnoyarsk Krai); CJSC Pikalyovskaya Soda (Leningrad Oblast) and LLC IA Khimprom (Kemerovo). A market share of over 50% is held by OJSC Bashkirian Chemistry, a group that includes both the OJSC Bashkir Soda Company and OJSC Berezniki Soda Plant. At the same time, the portion of the Russian market held by imported products of the same type has grown recently, exerting a pricing pressure on the domestic […]

According to Rosstat, Russia’s industrial production index in May 2014 equaled 102.8% when compared with the data for the same period a year ago; for the period spanning Jan-May 2014, the figure is 101.7%. Chemical production index in May 2014 amounted to 96.8% y/y, in Jan-May 2014, to 103.6%. The country’s polymers output totaled 512 thousand tonnes in May, marking a 1.5% decline in y/y terms and a decline of 1.3% from April 2014, while its Jan-May 2014 polymers output turned out to be 1.8% higher than in the same period of 2013. In the month of May, polyethylene (PE) output equaled 120 thousand tonnes, which was 23.5% less than in May last year and just 0.9% less than in April 2014. In this year’s Jan-May period, a total of 694 thousand tonnes of PE was produced. Polypropylene (PP) output in the period under report equaled 95.8 thousand tonnes, marking […]

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Sorry, this entry is only available in Russian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Russian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Russian.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Russian.